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Since becoming a makeup artist 3 years ago, I have come across a lot of good foundations & some that aren’t so good! I have decided to bring you all a list of my currently top favorites & why! Just to give you all a little back ground on my skin, I have oily skin & I am prone to getting white heads & have hormonal acne issues. I cleanse, tone & moisturize 2x daily & 1x a day I use Dermalogica’s Daily Micro-Foliant to exfoliate the skin. I do own a Clarisonic but use it mostly on the days that I wear makeup after I remove my makeup. I do not use my Dermalogica product & Clarisonic on the same day, that would be a little to much exfoliation.

I love love love, dewy glowing skin & don’t mind using foundations that will add a little bit of that extra glow. Matte skin is beautiful but it really isn’t my thing! So now that you know a little about what type of skin I have & how I like my foundation to look, lets get started with some of my favorite foundations (for the moment)!

Left to Right

1. Urban Decay’s Naked Skin($39) is an OIL FREE foundation that sets to a demi-matte finish. It is designed to blur fine lines & wrinkles & give the skin that flawless airbrushed appearance without having to use a ton of foundation.It is buildable coverage so use just a little or use a lot…it’s up to you.

I love this foundation because it really does feel & look like skin when you apply it. It’s lightweight, easy to wear & makes your skin look perfect. Even though it sets to a demi-matte finish, it still allows you to have glowing skin without looking greasy.

2. Cover FX Natural Finish Oil Free Foundation($40) is another BBB fav! This foundation is a water based liquid foundation that will help to hydrate the skin, soothe inflammation & reduce redness. It is silky in texture & provides, buildable sheer to full coverage. It is designed to last from day to night while looking natural & soft. It is water resistant & long-wearing.

This foundation was kind of iffy for me at first but when I realized that less is truly more with this foundation, I fell in love. This foundation seems to be thicker in texture when you first squeeze it out of the tube however, once you apply it you realize that it isn’t. The coverage is perfection & my skin looks & feels amazing with it on. Now, remember I am oily skin so when I wear this foundation I tend to skip the moisturizer. This foundation is already designed to hydrate the skin so I don’t mind going without the moisturizer. I know that is a rule that you typically aren’t supposed to break but that is what works best for me. I was very impressed with the wide range of shades that it came in & being a makeup artist that is a plus!

3. I was just recently introduced to Stila’s Stay All Day Foundation & Concealer($44) & I really have enjoyed using it. This foundation is an oil free stay all day foundation that gives your skin a flawless finish. It helps to minimize blemishes & skin imperfections all while hydrating the skin. It is a full coverage buildable foundation. At the very top of the cap there is a concealer that is supposed to work wonders however, I have never used it. I may try it out 1 of these days but I have a concealer routine right now that I am loving.

I used this foundation recently backstage at a fashion show & fell in love. I grabbed a couple of bottles & tried it out on a day that I knew I was going to be gone all day to give it a good test run. IT PASSED! It looked & felt great on the skin, gave me great coverage & by the end of my 8 hour day it was still in tact. It hadn’t separated or worn off like other foundations that I have tried in the past, it really did “Stay All Day!” A great foundation for that “skin like” appearance.

4. Benefit’s Hello Flawless($36) is an oil- free brightening liquid foundation that builds from light to medium coverage giving you a natural complexion. It has an SPF of 25 built in & comes in 9 different shades.

I have heard good & bad reviews about this foundation in particular but I am here to give it a good one! I love this foundation. I think that it is beautiful & it lives up to it’s claims, IMO. I will say that if you are oily skin & do not like the extra dewy look, then you might want to stay away. In my case, I love that extra added glow that this foundation gives. I will say that I tend to wear this foundation more in the winter time than in the summer since I am an oily skin sufferer. I did attempt to wear it on a hot summer day & with my skin type I noticed a little melting! LOL I knew then that I should reserve it for the winter. In the winter when your skin is dull & it needs some brightening, this foundation is great. The coverage is perfect for me (I don’t want full coverage all the time) & it really makes my skin GLOW!

Well there you have it, Britt’s Beauty Bag top 4 foundations! I hope that this review has helped you all & made it a little easier for you the next time you go foundation shopping. If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment & I will get right back with you!

Join me Sunday September 14th at 7pm (CST) for a live makeup tutorial! You will learn how to take your everyday daytime makeup & transition it into a sultry night time look with just a couple of added products.

This class will be 90 minutes long & at the end there will be a Q&A portion where I will answer your questions live on air. Grab your notebook, a glass of wine & come and enjoy the fun from the comfort of your own home.

The fee for this class is “Donate What You Can,” meaning donate a minimum of .5 & you can join the fun. Click HERE to register for the class, there might even be a few prizes!

Personally I don’t like my highlight to be really light so I don’t use super light highlighting products. I prefer to use a much darker shade to contour to still give the appearance of being contoured & highlighted.

Wanted to share a little clip with you all of one of my favorite people. Not only is she a regular client of mine but I can also call her a friend. This young lady has been such a blessing to my life over the past 10 months that we have worked together & I am so proud of all of her accomplishments.

Makeup in the video was done by me!

The video below tells the story about how Grammy Nominated Christian Singer, Kari Jobe, came up with the song Forever.

Forever was featured on her latest album Majestic which was released March 2014. Majestic was recently nominated for Praise & Worship Album of the Year for the 2014 Dove Awards which will air October 21st at 7pm CST

I will be doing Kari’s makeup that day for the show so be sure you tune in to see what look we came up with for the big day!

Today on BBB, I will be sharing with each of you how to get that perfect powder color so that you can set your highlighted areas without being to yellow or to white.

As we all know, contouring & highlighting is one of the most popular makeup trends on the planet right now & I don’t think that it is going away anytime soon. When done correctly, it is so beautiful & it can really add depth and dimension to the face. Your lighter color (highlight) will bring certain areas of the face forward while the darker color (contour) will push certain areas of the face back creating all sorts of makeup magic. Contouring & highlighting has the ability to give you an instant face lift without the surgery & create bone structure that you didn’t have when you woke up that morning.

Whenever you highlight with creams or liquids it is imperative that you set it with a powder. Make sure that your powder is not to light, setting powder that is to light looks unnatural. I have seen a lot of people over that past few years using Ben Nye’s Banana Powder to set their highlight color. Banana Powder can be quite beautiful but only on a certain skin tone. If not used correctly or on the proper skin tone, it can look too yellow. Another issue that I have observed are the highlighted areas appearing too white (translucent powders). When you have a deeper skin tone you should try to stay away from white based powders, even if they say translucent. On deep skin, a white translucent powder can make the skin appear ashy if too much is used.

In order to avoid any of these highlighting faux pas, try making a custom powder. You can do this by mixing a loose powder that matches your skin tone with a translucent (white) powder. Mixing the white with your skin tone color will lighten the powder making it a perfect match to set your highlight. Personally I combine my skin tone powder with translucent powder & a little bit of Banana Powder. I like Banana powder because I have more of a olive/yellow undertone to my skin so when I add the banana powder to my mix it gives it a hint of yellow which matches the undertones in my skin perfectly.

Now I know that you are asking how much of each you should mix but that really depends on you. If you want your powder to be lighter, mix more white, for more of a golden color add more Banana Powder etc. I recommend playing around with your powders & mixing different ratios to see what you come up with. Be sure that when you are playing you aren’t using a lot of product, you don’t want to throw away perfectly good powder. Rule of thumb…a little goes a long way.

Be sure to leave me a comment & let me know how it works if you try out this tip. Good luck guys & I will talk to you soon!

Do or Don’t? Unless you are filming a workout video or reality TV show, I think that you should just skip the whole “Makeup in the Gym” look & be all NAT-U-RAL! In my opinion, I think it is totally unnecessary & a nuance to wear a full face of makeup in the gym. Let’s face it… if you are really “GETTIN’ DOWN” in the gym, your makeup would be a hot mess once your workout is over. I say skip the powder & foundation & tough it out for an hour or with your bare beautiful face. Trust me, if other people are in the gym working out as hard as you are (or should be) they are not paying attention to your blush color. The only thing that you should keep in your gym bag are some facial cleansing cloths. These are great for removing the sweat, dirt & oil that built up during that glorious workout. Now for those of you who want a little product while “gyming” it up here are a few little tips. Throw on a little waterproof mascara, lip balm & at max a tinted moisturizer. The mascara will lift the eye and since it is waterproof it won’t smudge with all that sweat, your lip balm will help to hydrate the lips throughout your workout & your tinted moisturizer will add a little color to the face. No need for blush, your cheeks will be pink soon enough! When you work out your body releases heat causing you to sweat, when you sweat, your pores are open & if you have on makeup guess where it’s going? You guessed it, right into those pores which will cause black heads, white heads & other unwanted acne issues. Are you still protesting against my “NO MAKEUP AT THE GYM” mantra? Well here is a solution for those of you who just can’t imagine going bare face. Be sure that immediately after your workout you head home & remove all of your makeup with a makeup remover wipe or Makeup Eraser (click the link to find out more). Don’t run any errands or make that long-awaited SB run just yet, go straight home & get it off (or take your skin care to the gym). This is super important because you don’t want your makeup settling deeper & deeper into your pores, the deeper it settles the harder to get out. Once you have gotten everything off, go ahead & start your normal cleansing routine (cleanse, exfoliate, tone & moisturize), this will help to prevent any yucky bacteria from forming which can be the cause those pesky blemishes. Well I hope this helped some of you…leave me a comment below & let me know what you think. Remember, “Beauty is Power; and a Smile is it’s Sword!” Love, Britt